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Be leary of a boat that has a 1 1/2" gasoline pump sitting next to an open manhole....that pump wasn't put there because there was no where else to store it.
The trouble with a boat like the WINIFRED is its neither "fish nor fowl"......too big and heavy to be considered a pleasure boat, that means it requires a regular shipyard and their high costs to work on it but most shipyards won't fool with pleasure boats which is what this is.
The WINIFRED is an awfully big hole in the water and it will take a lot of money to fill that hole.
Looking at the pictures it looks like the only thing the boat has going for it is the paddlewheel.

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Perhaps you could get the folks at the RH shipyard to build a replica of the sidewheel LIBERTY.......now theres a boat that once you started cruising you'd never want to stop. Take a good look at the picture, the more you study it, the more charming the boat becomes. It would be the ideal pleasure boat.

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Beautiful boat! Nice porportions for a 128 footer. Unusual for a boat of her era to have the wheels so far forward, though that may be an illusion because of the angle of view. Way says she came out with "rotary engines", perhaps that would have something to do with the engine/wheel placement. I'm not sure what he means by rotary engines- turbines? Whatever her looks, she apparently wasn't much of a performer. Guess you can't have everything.

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Good, sound advice by both you and Cap'n Judd. But.... if any of the few remailing paddlewheelers are going to be saved, then someone must take a chance, foolish it may be or not, and rush in where the angels fear treading. I did pass on the WINIFRED, but I loved walking her decks, and as John Hartford said, "Dream."

Foolishly, or not, I also found a 35-foot homemade house boat that needs a new bottom plus a zillion other things (mostly $$), but she looks so lonely and forlorn moldering away on the riverbank, that I am seriously pondering buying and restoring this could-be beauty.

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Yea, Y'er right. The LIBERTY is the one to build. So we sent your suggestion and pic of the "Little Liberty" over to Crazy Cliff, in the Drafting Department, and he came up with this rendering for an even BIGGER boat that we're calling the BIG LIBERTY. Whatta ya think?

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Re: Liberty. Clifford's design shows imagination, but you cannot see the truly innovative part of it, and that is his design and layout of the sub-basement. Since all of the machinery is in the main hull and main deck, the sub-hull will be quite useful as soon as he figgers out how to keep the water out.

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Now that is a boat.....it's easy to see how the RH Shipyard and in particular Crazy Cliff gained their world wide reputation! I want to be invited to the launching, it should be something to see especially if you do a side launch. Tell the boys at the shipyard no more Pocahantas Water until this project is complete...uhm looks like Crazy Cliff has already ignored that rule.........

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Jim/Bill,
Regarding the old WINIFRED/MS MEREADA, that poor boat has had some unfortunate mishaps in the past. One incident was when the drydock people forgot to account for her heavy all-steel paddlewheel, and she slipped (or tipped) off of the marine way with some damage. Unlike the WINIFRED's sisterboat, she was never widened, and was really built a bit too narrow for an all steel cabin. The recent addition of a Captain's Quarters on the top deck is not going to help her stability (i.e. "righting arm").

I know the retired river salvor in Madison who is good friends with the WINIFRED's most recent owner. He supplied several surplus steel barge covers which were used to replate the WINIFRED's hull. Unfortunately they simply overplated the old hull with the barge cover steel, which is only 1/8" stuff. The same retired riverman helped the owner install the Morse controls and follow-up steering, which I know works well.

Several things on the boat just aren't right. I had heard that with concrete removed from the bow, and engine moved aft, the pilothouse was rebuilt using 1/2" plate to add weight forward. Not a good idea to add the weight up high like that!

I'm all for the boat getting a happy new home, but it would take really deep pockets...

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The WINIFRED should have been left in her original condition as I knew the rugged little paddlewheeler when she still sported her towboat lines and original engine. Mr. R., the owner in the late 70's, had her made into a "houseboat", and things went down, literally, after that. The boat never looked right after her conversion. To rephrase Alfafa, of the "Our Gang Kids", "They made a sissy out of her."